Journal article
Symptoms and other factors associated with time to diagnosis and stage of lung cancer: a prospective cohort study
FM Walter, G Rubin, C Bankhead, HC Morris, N Hall, K Mills, C Dobson, RC Rintoul, W Hamilton, J Emery
British Journal of Cancer | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2015
DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2015.30
Abstract
BACKGROUND: This prospective cohort study aimed to identify symptom and patient factors that influence time to lung cancer diagnosis and stage at diagnosis. METHODS: Data relating to symptoms were collected from patients upon referral with symptoms suspicious of lung cancer in two English regions; we also examined primary care and hospital records for diagnostic routes and diagnoses. Descriptive and regression analyses were used to investigate associations between symptoms and patient factors with diagnostic intervals and stage. RESULTS: Among 963 participants, 15.9% were diagnosed with primary lung cancer, 5.9% with other thoracic malignancies and 78.2% with non-malignant conditions. Only h..
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Awarded by National Institute for Health Research Programme Grants for Applied Research programme
Awarded by National Institute for Health Research
Funding Acknowledgements
The study team thanks all the patients who contributed to this study, and the public representatives in the study team for their valuable contributions to the project: Sue Ballard, Victor Boulter and Margaret Johnson. We also thank the clinical teams, research nurses and clinic administrators at the participating hospitals: Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust-Prof Edwin Chilvers, Margaret Harris, Kathy Restarick and Debbie Hugh; Papworth Hospital-Vicky Senior; North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust-Dr Richard Harrison, Dr Catherine Elmer, Nicky Bateman and June Battram; County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust-Dr Neil Munro, Jill Dean and Gill Homer. Finally, we acknowledge the contribution to the research presented in this paper made by Rafael Perera, Professor of Medical Statistics, University of Oxford and the other members of the Discovery Programme Steering Committee: Roger Jones (chair), Jon Banks, Alison Clutterbuck, Ardiana Gjini, Joanne Hartland, Make Justice, Jenny Knowles, Richard Neal, and Peter Rose. This paper presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research Programme Grants for Applied Research programme (RP-PG-0608-10045). RCR was funded, in part, by the Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the Cambridge Cancer Centre.